The ethanol lobby has gone ballistic over comments made two weeks ago by Jean Ziegler, the United Nations' independent expert on the right to food for the world's poor. From an AP story on Ziegler's comments two weeks ago:

Jean Ziegler, who has been the United Nations' independent expert on the right to food since the position was established in 2000, called Friday for a five-year moratorium on biofuel production to stop what he called a growing "catastrophe" for the poor. Scientific research is progressing very quickly, he said, "and in five years it will be possible to make biofuel and biodiesel from agricultural waste" rather than wheat, corn, sugar cane and other food crops.

The world price of wheat doubled in one year and the price of corn quadrupled, leaving poor countries, especially in Africa, unable to pay for the imported food needed to feed their people, he said. And poor people in those countries are unable to pay the soaring prices for the food that does come in, he added.

"So it's a crime against humanity" to devote agricultural land to biofuel production, Ziegler said at a news conference. "What has to be stopped is ... the growing catastrophe of the massacre (by) hunger in the world," he said.

As an example, he said, it takes 510 pounds (231 kilograms) of corn to produce 13 gallons (49.2 liters) of ethanol. That much corn could feed a child in Zambia or Mexico for a year, he said.

Here is part of today's retort from the ethanol lobby, which called Ziegler's statements "rogue" and "apocalyptic":

As representatives of the world's leading ethanol producers, we are deeply concerned with the Interim Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food submitted to the General Assembly on August 22 and with Mr. Jean Ziegler's public declarations to the international media in late October.

The apocalyptic statements made by the Special Rapporteur, calling biofuels production a "crime against humanity" and a "recipe for disaster," are not only unjustified but also unacceptable to those of us who contribute to this emerging industry and millions of people around the world who benefit from renewable biofuels everyday.

Biofuels do not lead to famine. The report preys on the food vs. fuel debate, claiming that biofuels are responsible for current and future significant increases in food prices and suggesting that biofuels will lead to widespread hunger in poor countries. As Nobel Prize winner Dr. Amartya Sen pointed out ten years ago, worldwide hunger does not result from insufficient food production but rather from low income and unemployment, which limit the access to food. Lack of infrastructure, weak institutions and misguided public policies also contribute to the unequal distribution of food around the world.

Blame petroleum, not agricultural prices. The report ignores the fact that food prices have increased far less than petroleum prices. Over the last three years, when biofuels gained momentum, agricultural prices have gone up by 7% while oil prices jumped by more than 70%. In fact, the sharp increase in oil prices is largely responsible for the increase in food prices. Moreover, higher oil prices are the result of rising demand in fast growing emerging countries like China and India, adverse climatic conditions in some regions, and speculation on international markets. Contrary to the interim report, higher agricultural prices provide additional income to farmers in developed and developing countries negatively affected by low international prices during many years.

Ethanol: Enormous subsidies for the energy industry. Environmental degradation. Higher food prices for everybody. Greater risk of hunger. What's not to like?